civilian personnel from afghanistan no later than may 1st, 2021. in june of 2020, the u.s. troop levels reached 8600. in october former president trump tweeted we should have the small number of remaining brooif men and women serving afghanistan home by christmas. in november 17th, 2020, then acting secretary of defense miller announced that we will implement former president trump's orders to continue repositioning forces from afghanistan. and the 25 00 u.s. troops who remain there by january 15th. on january 15th, he announced that there were, indeed, 2500 troops left. on january 20th th, biden became president. 2500 troops were then in afghanistan.

on april 14th, president biden announced his intention to continue the withdrawal all regular u.s. troops by september 11th. four months after the pre-planned may first deadline. on july 2nd italy and germany withdraw their troops. on july 17th we have had specific testimony here on what then happened from july 17th on. and if i recall correctly, the afghan government completely collapsed on the 20th of august. wasn't there any longer. and from there, the evacuations commenced. a general -- good wednesday morning. a lot to follow this morning on capitol hill including that intense house armed services

committee hearing that we have been following all morning. the hearing on afghanistan. the general taking questions from lawmakers. joint chiefs chairman milley, general mckenzie all in the hot seat. the top line this morning, the generals say the united states did what it had to within the boundaries of the options that they had on the table to end america's longest war. plus it's a make or break 24 hours for the spending showdown that has president biden's agenda hanging by a thread. this morning speaker pelosi juggling dueling opinions by progressive and centrist members of her caucus on passing that agenda. progressives sticking to their threat to tank tomorrow's vote on the bipartisan infrastructure bill. the clues we're getting about where negotiations stand at this hour. she took just eight minutes of questions from reporters. we're going to play that for you

in full momentarily. we're working to turn around that tape. and then a sign of just how precarious things are. president biden cancelling a planned trip to chicago in order to be negotiator in chief. the president meeting with senator christen cinema, again today. it's her fourth visit in two days with the president. what if anything he can do to get his party in line and save his agenda. we're going to start with the hearing on afghanistan. it's ongoing. it's happening with the top military brass right now. we have a great team of reporters and experts. they are following it for us. big new details we've learned this morning during the hearing so far. what's jumped out today? >> that's right. most of the questioning so far today has followed on what we learned yesterday. general milley repeating his pretty remarkable statement

yesterday that the war in afghanistan was lost. that it was a strategic loss for the united states. but one thing that we got a little bit from yesterday was from the defense lloyd austin. both the commander of u.s. central command and the chairman of the joint chiefs spoke pretty much at length about how they had recommended keeping a military presence on the ground in afghanistan to president biden earlier this year. but secretary austin didn't speak as extensively about it. this morning we heard a little bit more about his recommendations to the president while he threaded the needle of not saying specifically exactly what he talked to the president about. he did make his recommendations clear in this exchange. >> mike, there's been a lot of back and forth over our military leader's advice about the 2500 troops remaining in afghanistan. it appears to contrast with public comments made by president biden. specifically in that sit-down with george stephanopoulos at

abc. what's the white house saying about that? what we heard from the generals versus the president? >> well, what the white house is doing is very carefully deconstructing with the president was asked and how it lines up with what we've been hearing from the generals on capitol hill. they're arcing if you look at the question the president was asked. he was asked about a question that didn't exist. the situation was stable and would remain stable if they kept 2500 troops in afghanistan. the white house saying that was never a reality that the president was confronted with. what you're seeing on the hill today another layer of this as well. whether the president was directly hearing from the commanders or whether that recommendations were being filtered through the defense secretary there and that was some of what we heard in terms of the back and forth today. the other thing that the white house is trying to focus on and we're hearing that from some of the president's allies on the democratic side of that panel

there, a comparison of the thoughtful distribute as they're portraying it process president biden went through in order to execute the drawdown of u.s. forces and comparing that to the abrupt decision that president trump was making even late into his term to order a potential full withdrawal in the final weeks of his administration. they're trying to argue this president is one who was executing a very carefully thought out strategy that did take into consideration a range of views versus the previous president who left as the white house has argued throughout this process, the president biden with a rather unten shl situation. that's what you can do as we heard from the congressman of california trying to lay out the timeline as it relates to president trump's decision making that really in the white house as you tied president biden's hands once he came into office. >> is that the most political pressure point we could see lawmakers drill into going forward as they investigate the withdrawal? the timeline? >> i think so, craig. and mike really hit on this.

i was struck by the same things. all of these lawmakers, because both parties agree that the way in which we got out of afghanistan was not done in the most effective way that it was messy, that it was obviously very costly in terms of those 13 service members who died in those waning days that we were in the country. but i do think the ways in which these lawmakers, especially on the democratic side, will try to continue to lay out that this was not just the biden administration making these decisions. that they were tied in many ways to the decisions that came from the administration before them. again, continuing to remind that this is not something that even just spans the last two presidencies but for many presidencies before that. over the course of the last 20 years. i also think just continuing to watch as they make the point and the generals certainly have made this as well. about the logistical successes on the ground. but the shortcomings in terms of having a larger strategy at play here. all of this boils down politically to the points that both sides want to make. i think even broadening it out

fut than that, august was a really tough month for this white house. now as you move into september, i think a lot of people both there and democrats on the hill wanted to be able to turn the page. to have a larger conversation about the ramifications of ending america's largest war certainly, but also turning the page to focus on a legislative agenda that was supposed to be a little more successful working its way through congress. right now what we've seen and i know you're going to talk about this in your show, is infrastructure negotiations stalling out. the president cancelling his travel in order to be more present. a government shutdown looming even as democrats have a framework of a plan to get over the hump. there are different crises plaguing democrats on the hill that impact the white house. the hearings and the continued monitoring of what happened in afghanistan only harkenen back and underscore the fact that the end of the summer into the fall is not exactly the fall that the white house was hoping that they would be having right now. >> that's a good point. stand by. i want to bring doug into the

conversation. doug, of course, national security counsel's director for iraq in the bush and obama administrations. also retired army lieutenant colonel in afghanistan. doug, let's dig into the future timeline here. general milley, as you know, noted this morning in his opening remarks and al qaeda could present themselves in the next 12 to 36 months. one to three years in afghanistan could pose a threat to us again. how real is that concern, doug? and what are your concerns about our ability to counter them? >> well, the operative word there is could. and general milley is obviously covering his bases. it's by no means certain al qaeda is going to resurge as a serious threat in a way that it can project power from

afghanistan into europe or the united states in the one to three-year time period. general milley is covering his bases. that's not impossible. we like to think that u.s. intelligence would see if that happens. even bracketing whether the taliban might help or not. but the u.s. intelligence would see that is happening and that this -- there's much over the horizon capability that could deal with that were al al kaed to start gathering form. >> is it true? >> ham strung, certainly they were handed -- they were handed the doha agreement and had that in hand. and i think that did contour their decision-making.

we certainly heard that from the chairman yesterday. his admission that on september 1st, we were going back to war with the taliban if we did not comply with the doha agreement. i'm waiting to see if someone follows up on that today. we've heard this testimony about what we recommended the 2500 troops be left. if we're going back to war on september 1st as the chairman said, how do you reconcile those two things having only a 2500 man footprint, service member footprint inside afghanistan, not enough to really effectively fight. when you're going to have a taliban that went back to war on september 1st if the doha agreement as modified wasn't followed. >> we have to leave it there. a big thanks to all of you. don't go far. i want to come back and pick up a few threads in a moment. we're keeping a close eye on capitol hill. the fight over president biden's agenda, the threat of oh government showdown. a few moments ago nancy pelosi

came out to talk to reporters. here's what she had to say in its entirety. >> so we had a very productive meeting. today is a baseball game. so our hero for baseball is cedric richmond. he's an important appointment of president biden to his administration, and he came and spoke baseball using these analogies which are very, shall we say, clear to talk about where we need to be. and it was actually -- well, we'll talk baseball later. the fact is we're in a place -- i spent a good deal of time talking about the debt ceiling because we have to get that done. $15 trillion in household wealth would go down the drain and unemployment would go up to 9%. it would double. it would be increased interest on car loans, credit card bills,

mortgages, anything you're paying. so this is something that has to be done. the fact that the republicans are being so irresponsible is no surprise, but nonetheless, disappointing as always. so in any event, in terms of an update as to where we are, the president is negotiating as is well known. i keep reading it in the daily metropolitan journal about that, and it is what is happening. and we're hoping that we can come to a place. it's not about a dollar amount. the dollar amount as the president said is zero. this bill will be paid for. it's about what are the values that we share and how we prioritize them? and that is the place we'll go. i have calmness, because i have confidence in our house democrats. they care about america's working families. universally. and a vision that the president has put forth is one that we

share. but there was the democratic party. we have our differences of opinion. we're not a lock step rubber stamp party. who would want that? >> do you believe the progressive's threat? they say half the caucus will vote against that? >> well, i think there's -- let me -- i want to try to describe in terms of time. up until the beginning of last week, we were 3.5. i'm very proud of our members. the members of the committees of jurisdiction, 13 acted in a timely fashion to reach the september 15th goal. which everybody said was impossible, but they did. and then we had on last saturday, the plan that we would give sufficient notice to the budget committee who would present their proposals. and that's what happened. but in the meantime, there's this, oh, my god, we can't go to

that number. well, that completely sets off the timetable. so i think that if we come to a place where we have agreement in legislative language, not just principle, legislative language, that the president supports. it has to meet his standard, because that's what we are supporting. then i think we will come together. i think they've spoken beautifully for the priorities that we have in the bill. but because we're at the mercy of the senate and its customs and the parliamentarian and rules, we can't bring something to the floor without the approval of the parliamentarian, in order to preserve the 61 votes? >> plo pro greszives are still threatening to block the vote by the end of the day, if that happens, are you still able to move forward? >> we take it one step at a

time. >> two quick questions. i want to clarify. legislative language, legislative language on reconciliation before you bring up the infrastructure bill. i want to confirm. >> we're doing it simultaneously. >> okay. on the debt limit you clearly, there are clearly some issues on passing the stand alone today. are those solved? are you convinced they will be solved? >> we'll proceed in a way -- we have to get it done. so let's -- what i always like to do is what is it we must do? let's engineer back from that, and that's what we do. >> signing out of an this legislative language by tomorrow for the infrastructure bill? >> we're not talking about a timetable. this -- we -- one of the things that i said that i can -- i can keep a commitment that the senate has made impossible to do, but what i have also said is we're not proceeding with anything that doesn't have agreement between the house and

the senate. and that's where we're working. with the -- we can pass a bill any time, but if it doesn't have the support of the senate, then where are we? we have to have something that has both sides. and the interest of the american people first and foremost. what it means to them, as well as it's -- time-saving. to do it together. >> you're not ruling out possibly delaying the vote tomorrow? >> we -- we -- i said we'll have the vote tomorrow. >> yes? >> i'm not quite a troublemaker, but instigator over here for the will of the american people has clearly stated what the prerogatives are of the speaker of the house. >> that you get to lay it without unilaterally? >> well, the speaker has that authority, but i want it to pass. so what we want it to do is pass tomorrow. and anything that strengthens the hand of the speaker helps

pass the bill. >> would it be helpful to lay out their demands for your caucus? >> it's not a question of laying out. they're having a values discussion with the president of the united states. i know you saw ads and the rest of it. demands and split and all this. but this is much more amicable than you would think just watching television or reading the paper. >> have you spoken to the president today? >> yes. >> or will you later -- you've already spoken with him? >> i do not reveal the president's schedule, but i have every confidence that we will be sharing our views. >> did the president indicate -- >> you'll have to talk to him about that. >> extension might not advance in the senate. why twist the arms of moderates if this is not going to move anywhere? >> what are you talking about? we have a responsibility to

uphold, to lift up the full faith and credit of the united states of america. that's what we have to do. these members have all voted for this last week. so if they're concerned about how it might be in an ad, it's already in an ad. it's already in an ad. so let us give every confidence every step of the way that we will do that. we cannot predicate our actions in the house on what could happen in the senate. we can when we're coming to an agreement on the bill, but in terms of this, i have no patience for people not voting for the -- >> thanks, everyone. >> all right. there you have it. nancy pelosi on capitol hill. lots to dig into. to do that, let's bring in our political reporters. help us untangle, if you can, the party dynamics. give us a sense of what it all means for the timeline.

>> that's right. one big take away from speaker pelosi is she's not guaranteeing that infrastructure vote will happen tomorrow, thursday as was initially planned. she said one step at a time. she also said they want to get legislative language on that separate multitrillion build back better act as she called it. it's the big holdup for everything right now. a group of dozens of progressive lawmakers in the house of representatives have threatened to vote down that infrastructure bill until there is agreement on that build back better bill. they're deeply frustrated with the senate, specifically two senators, joe manchin and to a greater extent, kiersten cinema for not saying either publicly or in certain cases privately in certain meetings what specifically they'd be willing to support. that's the holdup. now, the speaker said she has the authority to extend that infrastructure vote, the postpone it. she also said she wants that infrastructure bill to pass.

there's no indication that house democratic leaders are whipping their members right now or twisting arms trying to pressure them to vote yes, and based on our reporting, the votes simply are not there. progressives are resolute that they'll stop the infrastructure bill until that separate bill is ready. they're afraid that the democrats will sink or try to shrink that build back better act if infrastructure is done. that's a standoff right now. one democrat i spoke to called it mutually assured destruction between the two sides. there's a lot of anxiety about the state of president biden's agenda going forward. >> sahil, that fear you mentioned progressives have, is that -- i'm -- i shouldn't ask i guess if it's the fear itself that's legitimate. based on lawmakers you've talked to, is it legitimate? >> it seems so. let me tell you what it's based on. the progressive's view is that senator manchin and senator

cinema have a lot invested in this. they both helped write it. the senate can function between democrats and republicans coming together. this passed with 69 votes including 19 republicans. and senator cinema has been touting it at home. they know they want the infrastructure bill to pass and they're concerned if that's passed and signed into law, they will be less interested in passing the reconciliation bill. theporosis gives see this as a package bill. they like parts of the infrastructure bill. they dislike parts. they all say they're willing to support it and vote for it at the end of the day if this massive social safety net package changes. investments in health care, child care packages. that the their priority. they point out this is president biden's agenda. >> so progressives are prepared to go all or nothing? >> that is certainly what it seems. if the infrastructure bill is not agreed to, they are insistent that they are going to vote down the infrastructure

bill, and there's no indication that they're caving. usually when speaker pelosi says the vote is happening tuesday, we're going to pass this, there's a lot of movement. she can be extremely persuasive. she has not been able to move house progressives. you heard her talk about the need for legislative language simultaneously passing the two bills which is precisely what house progressives want. she's in legacy mode. it's not clear how much longer she's going to be around, and this would be a transformative achievement. we have the government funding and debt ceiling bill facing the deadline tomorrow. i'm going to read this. senator klobuchar saying she was confident we would avoid a government shutdown say, quote, this would be a shutdown of stupidity. what do we know about that part of the story, where it stands, the debt ceiling and the government shutdown? >> there are less than two days before the government shutdown. it would happen tomorrow, thursday at midnight if there's

no action. and chuck schumer is saying the senate could vote as early as today on a stopgap bill to keep the government funded through early december. now, the whole log jam here was the issue of the debt ceiling. the house passed a bill that extended the government funding, and raised the debt ceiling. sent it to the senate. and the senate republicans filibustered it. they said they don't want to extend the debt ceiling. the short-term plan is for the senate to pass a bill that has the government funding in it to prevent a shutdown from happening tomorrow and to address the debt ceiling later. the debt ceiling, that is an extremely serious issue right now. and this standoff, this staredown between democrats and republicans shows no sign of resolving at this moment. republicans have insisted they have said for months they will filibuster any attempt to lift or extend the debt ceiling through the normal process. in addition to that, senator schumer said today there is no way that democrats are using that reconciliation process.

he said it would take time to ping-pong back from the house and senate and would be dangerous. one way or another, congress is going to have to get this done or risk what could be a catastrophic debt default. the first time in the country's history if that were to happen on october 18th. most lawmakers say they're confident this gets done, but it's unclear at this moment how it gets done. >> we should point out, again, that the raising of the debt ceiling isn't for new projects. it's to basically pay america's credit card bill. it's to pay for spending already approved by democrats and republicans. help us understand the mood inside 1600 pennsylvania avenue this morning. we know the president cancelled that trip to chicago yesterday. we know he's meeting with arizona senators at the white house today again. what's the mood like inside the white house? and any idea who else the president might be meeting with? >> well, it's clear from the white house's posture here that they understand what's at stake here in the next 48 hours with

the president's agenda. the white house press secretary yesterday not shying away from it. using a term the president likes to use calling it an inflection point for the administration. now, when you saw those remarks from speaker pelosi just a short time ago, you heard her refer to cedric richmond, a senior white house adviser, also a former member of the house democratic caucus who was in the meeting today trying to help corral democrats, using some baseball metaphors to encourage team unity. richmond should be mentioned. it was the star starting pitcher for the house democratic baseball team. tonight is the congressional baseball game between democrats and republicans at national park. what i think pelosi was signaling, they don't need a starter. they need president biden to be the closer at this point. she mentioned she would likely be in touch with the president herself. part of why the president cancelled the event in chicago today to focus on vaccination efforts was because progress was being made. multiple meetings between the

president, senator cinema, senator manchin as well as white house officials in different combinations over the course of the day yesterday. and they wanted to keep that momentum going with some additional meetings today. the white house officials are also telling me the president is on the phone with a much wider range of members as well including some of those progressives. part of the argument from the president consistently has been that this was what he campaigned on. the build back better agenda. it was what he and other democrats promised the american people they would give on if they were elected. and he's trying to encourage democrats to stay on the same page here and ultimately see this through. but it's clear that senator cinema and also senator manchin haven't perhaps been as clear with the white house with their colleagues about what exactly they're looking for and ultimately, we're hearing this -- you heard it from speaker pelosi if you read between the lines. only the president can ultimately get those senators to really make those firm commitments now and pelosi holding out the likelihood she wouldn't move ahead with that vote tomorrow if the president

is unable to get the commitments needed at this point. >> the vote on the infrastructure bill. thank you both. we'll be checking in with you a lot over the next few days. we're also keeping an eye on the house hearing on afghanistan. we'll bring you any big updates from that. first, the fda getting closer to approving a covid-19 vaccine for five to 11-year-old children. what about children even younger? how soon could toddlers get the shot? what pfizer's ceo told me about that, and why some parents are nervous, next. ts are nervous, next. - what's going on? - oh, darn! - let me help. lift and push and push! there... it's up there. hey joshie... wrinkles send the wrong message. help prevent them with downy wrinkleguard. feel the difference with downy.

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right now parents across the country are wondering when their children will be able to get their covid shot. the fda currently reviewing data for kids 5 to 11. according to the pfizer's ceo, that fda approval could come as soon as trick or treating gets underway for halloween. i talked to a doctor about that as part of a panel decision for the atlantic festival on tuesday. here's part of our conversation. >> you submitted the data to the fda on the vaccine for children between 5 and 11. how soon do we expect approval? i know you talked about the past a realistic timeline. does that still hold? >> you know, it is -- it's not appropriate for me to comment on

how long it will take the fda. it will take as much time as they think it is appropriate for them. we will be ready to have the vaccine available. because this is a -- also -- it has way less mrna snds. one-third of the dose of what the adults are receiving right now. but despite that, we have the exact same efficacy and the exact same safety profile. >> timeline? halloween still realistic? >> you know, it is one of the options, and it's up to the fda. no pressure on them. it's not appropriate. >> let's talk about the kids under the age of five. assuming that we get this approval for 5 to 11 in the next few weeks, how soon of that do we believe children under the

age of 5 will get a shot? >> the studies are ongoing. it's between 2 and 5 i believe in a couple months we should be in a position to have the data, and then -- before tend of the year. >> before the end of the year? >> yeah. >> what say you to that? this idea that we should at the expense of boosters here perhaps be trying to get more first shots in arms in poorer countries? >> i think this is wrong. i think w.h.o., world health organization should be making recommendations based on science and the health. and i think that boosters should be approved or not only based on the fact that there is a need and they're safe, and the fact that if any of the three is not valid, it should not be approved. and if all three is valid, and safe and effective, it should be approved. we cannot say that me, i would

like to have less protection to -- that can give more protection to another country. >> how concerning are future variants to you? >> you know, i don't think we should be scared about them, but i think we should be prepared for them. the current variants, there are a lot of them. every time that one is e americaning, we're testing it. we're having a surveillance system. we're getting the variant and testing if our current vaccine is effective or not. if we suspect it might not be, we start producing a vaccine that is taylor made for this variant. we will always try to be ahead of the virus. and we will try to be able to have the right immune responses and with the right vaccines. >> after the pandemic, what is this going to mean for the way that we treat disease and illness moving forward in this country? if we can do something like this so relatively quickly, perhaps,

perhaps this could mean that we'll be able to replicate this with regard to other diseases and illnesses? >> it would be unacceptable if we don't try to do that. clearly when you are able to do something like that, with covid, the question is why not with cancer? why not with parken son? there are so many diseases that they are -- they don't have a treatment or a prevention or therapy. and the question is why wouldn't they be able to move equally fast? before covid to develop a vaccine was taking ten year and we did it in eight months. we were able to manufacture it at quantities that they are mind blowing. for example, the annual production of pfizer in terms of vaccines in 2019 before the pandemic was 200 million doses

per year. 200 million doses a year. in 2020 y the same. in 2021, suddenly a new vaccine will make 3 billion of these vaccines. that didn't happen. it happened because we have high concentration of scientists, engineers, infrastructure, and then we invested heavily, and we did things out of the box. we did things very differently. i think that's a challenge for us. and obligation to repeat. >> you can catch that entire conversation with the doctor at the atlantic festival online. the website is on the screen. we should mention nbc news is the exclusive media partner for the atlantic festival. the white house says more than 400,000 americans have gotten pfizer booster shots at pharmacies since friday. more than a million more have scheduled appointments for their

extra doses over the next few weeks. it comes as daily new covid cases are leveling off nationwide. msnbc's allison barber is in mississippi checking in with the icu overwhelmed with patients one month ago. alison, i know last month the staff that you talked to at the hospital said they were feeling desperate. what did they say this time? >> yeah. because remember whenever you have a situation where they are seeing a massive influx of patients needing hospital level care because of covid-19, all the other medical needs people have, those don't stop. so you have this ripple effect where they just simply don't have the resources, the staff available to handle all of it. that's really what we saw happening here just one month ago. today the doctors, the nurses, the respiratory therapists, they all say things have become much more manageable right now. but they also say they're not

out of the woods yet. listen. >> how would you describe things now compared to a month, a month and a half ago? >> so under control. whereas before we felt that we were literally drowning. it doesn't feel like that anymore. going forward, i am hopeful that this curve will continue on the trajectory, keep going down. we'll have less people until the next surge comes along. which i think is inevitable. >> last time we were here when we walked into that icu, every single room was full. all but one at that time had covid patients in them. 90 plus percent were unvaccinated. this time around they had a combination of people there because of covid-19 but also people who were there for other medical needs. they even had one bedroom that was empty. a month ago they had people with covid-19 in the emergency room

needing a bed in the icu. that doctor we spoke to, he explained that it's kind of a combination of factors improving things here. it's the vaccination rate in mississippi increasing. a fairly good amount in the last month or so. it's also that you had a whole lot of people get sick. so there is natural immunity. both of those things, higher rates of vaccination, natural immunity, it's impacting and helping to improve the situation on the ground here. but one thing he was very clear in wanting to emphasize is that even if you have had covid-19, you still should get vaccinated. they say there are numbers of studies that have shown natural immunity. the antibodies you get in that is not as strong as the available vaccines. there are other studies that have shown that your immunity and the antibodies that you might get from actually having covid-19, it varies person to person. some people don't always have antibodies. so they say it really is important if they're going to stay in a manageable place, that

vaccination rates continue at the pace they're at and even move beyond that. >> again, things appear to be improving. some good news this morning. alison, thank you. meanwhile in the last hour, youtube announced it is now going to ban vaccine misinformation from its platform. youtube will take down any videos that claim commonly used and approved vaccines are ineffective and/or dangerous. the company is removing several accounts of prominent anti-vaccine advocates from the platform. you might recall youtube previously blocked covid information at the start of the pandemic. since last year more than 130,000 videos have been taken down for spreading covid misinformation. believe it or not, we are less than three months away from christmas. sending presents and cards? it's about to get more expensive and slower. we're going to get a preview of the changes at the post office next. e changes at the post offie next

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lots happening. we're keeping close tabs on the hearing in the senate judiciary hearing. it's on abortions after six weeks before most women know they're pregnant. tomorrow the house oversight committee will have a similar hearing. a handful of female house members are expected to testify

about their own experiences at the hearing. we are getting close to that time of year when a lot of americans start thinking about the holiday season. especially when it comes travel plans and money that you may have set aside for spending. but this morning, this morning the postal service is announcing some changes that could impact your budget and your timeline. the changes will affect the most popular delivery services. tom costello has all the details. >> reporter: it's yet another change to the nation's mail system that has customers talking and complaining. >> it's very frustrating, because you tell them well, i sent this. it's on the way, and it never gets there. >> it's been so unpredictable and unreliable. i'm at a loss of what to do. >> starting this friday, some first class mail will take up to two days longer to arrive. largely affecting standard size, letters and flat rate envelopes traveling longer distances.

as for package rates, prices will go up for commercial and retail customers. from $0.75 to $5 more. depending on how heavy the package is and how far it's going. fedex users will also see price jumps starting in november. that's when an extra surcharge kicks in on some shipments including fedex express, ground, and freight packages. the shifts in service, come ahead of a even bigger holiday surge. the usps will hire more than 40,000 seasonal workers to handle a record number of deliveries. that's amid a shortage of tens of thousands of truck drivers nationwide. all of it a stress test for shipping industry on the brink. sky high service charges and longer wait times are already trickling down to the pocketbooks of everyday consumers. from home appliances to conditioned goods to jeans. with some prices already jumping

up nearly 25%. definitely across the board expect to pay more, wait longer for the things that you would have normally taken for granted. >> and customers are also paying extra at the nation's car dealerships where a global computer chip shortage is leading to a shortage of new cars. many truck and car assembly lines are now on pause. i asked a ford chairman when assembly lines will get back on track. >> how long will it take, do you believe, for that computer chip shortage to hopefully right itself, and for cars to show up in showrooms again? >> we are make progress gresz. i think we'll continue to make progress through the fourth quarter into next year. we're probably going to be living with this for some time. >> that was tom costello reporting. a big morning on capitol hill with the defense secretary and chairman of the joint chiefs testifying at that house hearing on afghanistan. coming on the heels of the

senate armed committee yesterday. top fbi officials talking about the threat from white supremist groups in the united states. what they said about how many investigations are underway. it will surprise you. next. want your clothes to smell freshly washed all day without heavy perfumes? try new downy light in-wash scent beads. it has long-lasting light scent, no heavy perfumes, and no dyes. finally, a light scent that lasts all day. new downy light!

just a few moments ago our team caught up with senator joe

manchin. one of the moderate democrats in the center of the negotiations. specifically infrastructure and spending. our team, specifically garrett haake, asked him about progressive distrust with him. >> we had the most important piece of legislation of the last 30 years. and we have talked about it. move on and negotiate. >> because progressives don't trust you, sir, that you will be with them on the negotiation bill. >> all right, senator manchin there. also he suggested that he may have another meeting with president biden today. we will continue to track that story. we're also following more breaking news on capitol hill right now. the house sub committee holding a meeting on the threat of domestic terrorism.

we just got a update about the threat of domestic terrorism and white supremacist violence. they laid out the sheer number of investigations under way. take us through what they're learning. >> the threat is really migrating toward domestic terrorism over internationally inspired terrorism in the united states. and timothy longstanding and the counter terrorism chief says they have thousands. it appears to include more than 600 related to the january 6th insurrection. he also answered a question about deaths. 2015 to 2020 there was 83 deaths attributed to domestic terrorism versus 80 attributed to internationally inspired

terrorism. those are very conservative numbers if is difficult to ascribe motive to a mass casualty attack. the main threat from domestic terrorism is from loan -- loan extremists. those people are out there and they're focused at the fbi. >> this is a persistent theme, and most of this is classified. we talked about it a lot at this hearing. i know from my own reporting that the fbi is tracking a stream of young disinformation from russia, china, and others like iran that is designed to

divide americans. it's a way that our adversaries are trying to thwart the united states and make life difficult. >> that is going to do it. back here at 11, but don't go far. dr. anthony fauci will join my friend and colleague andrea mitchell, next.

♪ i'm a reporter for the new york times. if you just hold it like this. yeah. ♪ i love finding out things that other people don't want me to know. mm-hmm. [beep] i just wanted to say... ♪ find yourself in these situations and see who you are. and that's just part of the bargain. ♪

. good day, this is andrea mitchell reports in new york. nancy pelosi is working to bring her caucus together also, at stake, two would-be deadlooips. a government shut down tomorrow night and worst case a failure to raise the government's debt ceiling. that comes from secretary janet yellin about the government defaulting and the potential financial disaster 19 days from now. >> we must address it issue to honor commitments made by this and prior congresss including the them from the economic pandemic. it's necessary to avert a catastrophic event for our economy. >> today house speaker nancy pelosi trying